VolkerStevin supports Engineering Your Future Career awareness day
VolkerStevin provided support to the organisers at the recent ‘Engineering Your Future’ event held at Burnley in Lancashire by holding one of the five workshops.
Three members of VolkerStevin; Dale Evans, design engineer, Manuel Brau, graduate engineer and quantity surveyor, Helen Flatman attended the workshop. Dale presented an insight into civil engineering, what had specifically led him into such a career and the areas that he enjoyed the most about the job. Dale was then joined by Manuel and Helen who assisted the students in an interactive exercise designed to demonstrate some of the essential skills of civil engineering.
The students were asked to construct an inclined chute to allow a marble to travel downwards at the slowest rate possible. The structure had to be built within twenty minutes using only card and sticky tape.
Overseeing the event was Chris Thomas, director of VolkerGround Engineering, who was amazed at the variation of inclines constructed: “Of the 20 structures constructed during the day each was surprisingly different, and demonstrated a wide range of imagination. The eventual winners were a group of young women who had come up with a relatively simple structure in comparison with some of the more fanciful versions constructed by other teams.”
Student feedback from the participants confirmed that the VolkerStevin exercise was rated the most memorable and enjoyable from the day, and hopefully will serve to inspire civil engineering as a future career.
Engineering Your Future
Now in its fourteenth year in London and its eighth year in the North West, Engineering Your Future is a series of one day career events established to provide an opportunity for attendees to see that engineering is a career worth pursuing, and help them make an informed choice.
This informative and hands-on event is aimed at students between 17-18 years old who are studying science, maths or engineering at GNVQ or A-Level. The day is split into five sessions providing insights into mechanical, civil, electrical/electronic, chemical and nuclear engineering.
This event is jointly co-ordinated and sponsored by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Institution of Chemical Engineers, the Nuclear Institute and the British Computer Society. The event is also fully supported by STEMNET and the northwest STEM Centres.
